


Three Ways to Climb a Wall

by brassmama



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-11 21:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2084034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brassmama/pseuds/brassmama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Antoine Triplett was weary of sharing his family's stories, but this new team wasn't so bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Ways to Climb a Wall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roane/gifts).



Antoine Triplett didn’t actively avoid mentioning his grandparents, but nor did he like to advertise his heritage, especially since becoming a full fledged agent of SHIELD. Being a ‘Legacy’ agent was a mixed blessing, depending on to who one was answering. His friends knew, but very few people in command thought that having Peggy Carter and Gabe Jones for grandparents was anything other than a crutch. It wasn’t true, but there were plenty of agents who would just assume he’d used his grandparent’s fame to call in favors. It was something he’d learned in his academy days.

“It’s bad enough that half these special forces morons think I should be stuck in the analyst pool because I’m a ‘girl’” His cousin, Sharon, had drawn the word out, the ‘ir’ sounding almost like ‘ur’, “But once they hear my last name, suddenly I’ve never worked to get anywhere. It’s just so frustrating. My great aunt being a founding member is the exact opposite of a leg up. All my great uncles are Howling Commandoes.”

Antoine had nodded, knowing the gist of the diatribe from the previous Thanksgiving. “I always was glad not to shoot up flares just by saying my name. I deal with enough BS without any of that.” Despite the diversity of its agents and plenty of rules about discrimination, racism was alive in well within SHIELD.Antoine never like to linger on such topics during the holidays. “Did you see what Cindy brought? She found a box of Uncle Jim’s gear.” Sharon gave him a knowing eyebrow that said ‘I know what you’re doing, Toni’, but the conversation quickly moved away from the burdens of the family business to what vintage gadgets that had turned up in the last year.

This memory felt fresh as Antoine stowed the suitcase of his grandfather’s gear under his new bunk. His mother had been livid when he’d shown up after the fall of SHIELD, mostly because she had been so worried, but had relented to let him take the items after he’d sat down and explained everything that had happened. If she’d seen Fitz set curtains on fire not two hours later, she probably would have changed her mind. He’d have brought up that Uncle Jim had done the same thing, albeit on purpose, while he’d been working for SHIELD in Paris. It was a great story, and he decided to share it next time he was down to visit with Fitz.

The intercom on the wall, near the door to his new quarters, buzzed twice before someone started talking. “Trip, there’s still some archiving to do.” Skye sounded annoyed, “And Koenig is saying he has other stuff he needs to do, which I don’t buy, want to come keep me from being too bored?”

Antoine smiled. “I’ll be down in a minute.” SHIELD, prior to implosion and probably in the event of, kept all the items deemed ‘not for public consumption’ in stashes that weren’t alway on book. Most of it was out of date gadgets, similar to what was now beneath his bunk, and non-dangerous 0-8-4s from before the time of the Sandbox and the Slingshot program. Coulson had started locating and sending out for them and Skye had been mostly in charge of the project, while recruiting the team when she got bored. The first container was still being unloaded in the cargo bay cum hangar.

When Antoine arrived, Skye was loading up a dolly with crates, already sweating. He hurried over when a long, unwieldy looking one almost got the better of her. He grabbed one end and helped set it on the floor.

“Thanks Trip, that one didn’t seem so heavy until I got it out.” Skye said.

“No problem. Don’t want to break anything in there. How are you organizing these?” Trip check to see it there was a ‘This Side Up’ sticker, and when there was none, levered the crate up on its skinny end to move it onto the cart.

“I’m gonna get it all down there first and then figure it out. These all seem to be failed prototypes, judging from the manifest.” Skye nodded to the clipboard hanging on the container.

“My great uncle always used to say there were three ways to climb a wall. I guess you’re going for plan number 3.”

Skye gave him raised eyebrow, amused. Trip didn’t usually bring up his family. “What’s that?”

“Set up and collect everything you can before you try anything. Advantage being you’re better prepared and can adjust more easily. Disadvantage being it takes longer to get started if you’re pressed for time.”

“Good thing I’m not pressed for time. Your uncle have any other good advice?”

“My other uncles, sure, Great Uncle Dugan, not anything else that applies here. Most of his advice involved not making assumptions or being distracted. I always that he’d stolen the wall advice from one of the other commandoes anyways.” Antoine got the crate settled and took the next crate that Skye had pulled from the container.

“Your great uncles was a Howling Commando?” Skye smiled. “Does AC know? I bet he’d love to hear those stories. You know he has a huge Captain America fanboy thing going on, right?”

Antoine set the crate down, considering how much he wanted to tell Skye. On one hand, he loved sharing stories, but on the other… he wasn’t sure he was ready to share that part of his life with other people quite yet. He’d told John and Ward about it when he’d been on their team, but in light of recent events, his trust was slightly shaken.

Antoine must have paused too long, because Skye spoke first, in a teasing tone. “It’s okay if you don’t want to share, I can just look it up in your personnel file. Won’t get all the great stories, but it’ll satisfy my curiosity.” She handed him another crate, this one somewhat heavy for its size. “But seriously, it’s fine if you don’t feel like telling me.” The last was said in a more serious tone.

Antoine gave her a nod, silently thanking her for the out.“You know, technically the nickname should be DC now, right? He’s not ‘Agent’ anymore.”

“He hasn’t complained yet, I’m not changing it.” Skye put one more crate on the cart and started it toward the elevator.

“And if he does?” Antoine hit the call button.

“When he does. And still not changing it. Just wait, I’ll come up with something ridiculous to call you. How about…” She dramatically put her finger to her chin, “Toni? Anty? Tripping Balls? Triple Jeopardy?”

Antoine laughed. His mom called him Toni, except when he was in trouble. Then, she’d three-name him and he’d be pulling out innocent expressions. “You’ve clearly given this some thought.”

“Yep.”

The elevator doors opened and he put his hand on one of the doors to keep it from closing as Skye pushed in the cart. The cart did leave a lot of standing room, so Skye rode down and he took the stairs. Maybe, he thought, she would be okay to share some stories with.

* * *

For the most part, everyone fended for themselves when it came to meals. This usually resulted in Simmons occasionally forgetting lunch, which is why Antoine was bringing her a granola bar. If she at something, Jemma usually would start to notice how hungry she was and go make a sandwich at least.

“It’s usually something Fitz remembers.” she’d told Coulson, when he’d expressed concern about it. “I’m sure I’ll adjust, soon.”

Fitz was still recovering. He was starting to get up and about, but hadn’t been cleared to start working until his arm was healed and he still had some healing left to do from inhaling salt water. It had sounded pretty touch and go for a little at the beginning, but now Fitz was at least well enough to express his displeasement about not working.

For the mean time, Antoine made it his job to make sure Jemma ate lunch. Probably she could have set some sort of alert for herself, but she could always keep working through it. If he came down and made conversation, she’d at least take a few minutes break from her continuing research into what GH-325 is and what other possible effects it may have.

The doors opened as he walked up, and Antoine saw Jemma was leaning over a microscope. She held up a hand to wave at him without taking her eyes off the sample, so he knew that she wasn’t going to be startled.

A moment later, she straightened up and noted something on her tablet before turning to him. “It can’t be noon already. I know I can get a bit lost in this, but there’s just no way.”

"It's noon." He handed her the granola bar, "I hear there's still some left over chow mein in the fridge from last night.”

“Sounds good, I suppose.” She turned to put her work away, or at least, away enough for her to leave it without losing her progress.

On the way up, they met up with Skye who also had her sights set on food. Skye complained a bit about paper cuts and Jemma suggested gloves.

“Yeah, that sounds good. There’s probably a janitor’s closet around here that has a few boxes.” Skye made a note to herself on her tablet. “Oh, which plan does that qualify as, Trip.”

Jemma gave her a confused look and Antoine took a moment to catch on. “The ‘How to Climb a Wall’ thing?”

Skye nodded. “Yep. I didn’t get to hear the other plans.”

Antoine briefly explained to Jemma about his great uncle sayings about approaching problems and left out Skye being nosy about his family. He had decided to share some stories with Skye and Jemma was good people.

“Using gloves probably would be plan 2, the grappling hook.”

Skye snorted. “And that means?”

“The idea is that you pick equipment to make the job easier. According to Jim, the whole phrase was Uncle Monty’s fault because one time, in France, they were trying to clear a wall and Monty pulled out a grappling hook out of nowhere and through it over the wall. Of course, he’d tied knots in it to make it easier to climb, but knots lessen the rope strength and it broken before Barnes and grandpa got over. They had to just climb with their fingertips. Nearly didn’t make it.”

“So your grandpa _is_ a Howling commando.” Skye gave herself a high five. “I bet you have the best stories from them right?”

“And maybe I’ll tell you some more sometime,” Antoine put an arm over Skye’s shoulders, “but first, there’s chow mein to be had.”

* * *

Upstairs, the three of them had sat around a table in the lounge, passing left over food around, Skye and Jemma laughing as Antoine worked through some of the better stories about the Howling Commandoes. Coulson had come in about half way through the first story (a full explanation about why they had needed to get themselves over a wall and how Monty had found a grappling hook) and was soon followed by May.

The current story was about Great Uncle Jim setting the curtains on fire.

“He was sitting outside the office, waiting for my grandma to go by and be a distraction so he could get the radio frequencies for some Zodiac spies, but there was this numskull at the head of the hallway holding her up, flirting with her. Which made grandpa Gabe pretty mad later, at least according to Jim. Anyways, the guy in the office is about to ask Jim what he’s waiting for, so he uses the cigarette to light the guy's drapes on fire and everyone starts panicking because THE DRAPES ARE ON FIRE. So Jim snuck in, grabbed the file and both him and Peggy ended up booking it down the rear fire escape." Antoine's grin lit the whole room. It was his favorite part of the story. "She complained that her hair was almost ruined waiting for Jim to get out the window."

Everyone was grinning, Skye and Jemma actively trying not to giggle too loud. The room felt full of warmth, like family Thanksgivings and taking his nephews and nieces out for halloween when he'd been younger. He was still feeling weary of this team the circumstance and his stubborn need to do right had thrust him into, but he could see his place here. It was good. It brought to memory the first way Jim had said one could climb a wall, by standing on your friend's shoulders and then pulling them up after you. 

The past month's events were the wall, Antoine figured, and this team had steady shoulders to help them all over.

 

 


End file.
